... macroeconomic conditions (policy rates, real GDP, inflation, interest rate volatility), are captured by the constant α. Following Albertazzi and Marchetti (2010) and Hale and Santos 4 For a survey ... Japan (Aoki and Patrick, 1994), Germany (Harhoff and Körting, 1998) and Italy (Angelini et al.,1998) and in more market oriented ones such as the U.S. (Petersen and Rajan, 1994; Berger and Udell, ... On the other hand, the decrease in revenues caused by the recession may reduce the reliance of firms on self-financing (Friedman and Kuttner, 1993) and cause an increase in the use of credit...